The theme of this year.s International women`s day is Choose to challenge.
A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.
So let's all choose to challenge.
How will you help forge a gender equal world?
Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.
When we talk about equality, people mostly have in mind men vs women dichotomy. Poor women suffer so much bcs of men. Yes we do. But poor women also suffer bcs of other women. Discriminatory behavior towards women (and other genders) does not come just from men but also from women, in some cases much worse than from men. Why this is important? Because it can change the way we post objectives for our problem solving actions.
Discriminatory and violent behavior are not gender characteristic, but personal. In every gender group (race, nation, religion...) there are people who are, more or less, discriminatory. Many of them do it without even realizing (unrecognized biases), some do it consciously (following their believes and values) and some do it instrumental (as a tool for achieving something else).
On the other hand, in every group there are people who will cry discriminaaaatiiiion when it is not. Easier to put a blame on others than to face reality. And reality is that, sometimes you just don.t fit job description or you did not follow the rules that stand for everyone or... and it does not have anything to do with gender, race, religion, nationality...
Discrimination and human rights of the girls and women are on different levels in different cultures and societies; western culture is considered as less discriminatory but still is.
What are the problems? What women are facing, regarding their choices and way of life, in contemporary world?
- We are being questioned for having children or not having children, for living with someone unmarried, for being single, for how we look, for being too emotional, for wanting a carrier, for not wanting carrier... just name it, is out there. This video, although with some debatable parts, gives good picture of contradictory msgs that women are exposed to on everyday basis, confusion that they make in our heads and enormous pressure to fit into something.
- In the world with freedom of speech, menstruation and reproductive health is still taboo. It is ok to have sex, even tape it, but is embarrassment to visit gynecologist or talk to trusted adult about sexual behavior. Haallooo! Too many girls don.t know how and why menstrual cycle works, that we have 3 holes between our legs and that you can catch some of the STDs with all forms of sexual activities. In some cultures during menstrual bleeding girls/women are banished from home. We are talking about biological mechanism which made humanity exist and yet, somehow is embarrassing, dirty, toxic, whatever...
- female genital mutilation
- women trafficking for purpose of sexual and/or physical slavery
- forced marriages
- restricted education, restricted movement, restricted ownership of one.s body
- blaming the victims of violence (it is your fault that you were raped, beaten...)
- femicide (quote on the photo taken from Where the wild roses grow song by N.Cave)
These are just some of the problems women around the world are facing.
On the other side there are politically and economically powerful women who play according to “men” rules, that is, don.t really care for those under them in hierarchy. No need to mention names, just take a look at the world.s political scene. Now and in the past.
There are no men and women rules, just life markets, cooperation / competition and ppl who are making decisions.
Valkyries of the world, regardless the gender, unite, rise and ride!
My “challenge” choice is, as for years so far, education of young people (and everyone else interested :))
What is yours?
Happy IWD 🌹
4 days this post was waiting for a little comment from my side. I wish for everyone, men and women would be treated as equals, anywhere in the world. I realise this is not the case, not even in the most progressive countries and societies around. That said, I also believe we are not all the same, I mean: we have about 8 billion individuals, all of them having their own characteristics. Everybody has male and female elements in their character. I also wish for the business side of society not to be male dominant in its approach, ie rational, hard with low levels of emotions. For sure we need more female characteristics mixed into how we do business. Will make the world a better place for sure. May even drive out the enormous push for growth, regardless. But we need to work on our cultures for that to happen.
ps Happy belated Women's Day! :)
Oh, great, you are back; no posts, no comments, I began to fear that you had been abducted by aliens ;P
Yes, and to be more precise, we don.t have our own characteristics just different structure of those characteristics that exist :) if you combine them in different ways and add environmental spice, there it is, uniqueness of every person.
I would rather not start discussion about "male" and "female" elements; what is innate are our sex, characteristics/predispositions of nervous system, endocrine sys etc but everything else that we perceive as male or female is shaped by society and roles that are given to us. Bottom line is, as long as we are afraid of each other and fight about who should be dominant, no equal treatment could be achieved. Further more, equal treatment is human invention, there is no such a thing in "animal world"; we think we overcame animal instincts, which is very not true. Just take a look at cancel culture as an example ;)
Owwww Owwww I wish Aliens abducted me: It would giving me proof of life outside mother earth!
Have been very very busy last few weeks, limiting my time around the HIVE chain to curation only; the searching, selecting and voting part. Last Wednesday and today reschuffled my priotities and here I am 😉
All true words you state. Indeed, female/male is categorisations by humans. Also very true that to be equal is a human invention. To be exact, we never can achieve absolute equality. Part of who we are is defined by our construct created by our parents and coded in our genes. In whatever society we will live, we differ from eachother, and some of those difference will never become equal. But that sound sad. I so see a growning number of female board directors in the companies in the Netherlands. Something I like. Whether they take the role of a male, or not, I don't know. This probably varies between the female C-levels.
Hahaha, yes, I think the same when in optimistic mood about aliens but from time to time I prefer not to know, for example if includes some sort of experiments. Optimistic version would be something like in the movie Arrival and the opposite like in the movie Circle (2015) :)
Nice references to the movies :) Arrival is indeed to better option. Circle is the true Big Brother, and more realistic then not imho. Unless we all wakeup and start transforming our societies to make sure raw materials are in public hands, AI is in public hands, big corporates are dismantelled, some form of UBI is created across the whole world and more of that. Not seeing politicians understanding the impact of AI in coming few decades.